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Why Social Science? Share Your Work With Policymakers

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

The America COMPETES Act reauthorization legislation – which passed the House earlier this year and targeted social science funding at NSF – is progressing in the Senate. The Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has requested public input to guide the development of the Senate’s version of COMPETES. SPSP’s advocacy partners at the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) are compiling examples of federally funded social science research to present to the Senate committee. The guidelines from COSSA can be found below. As the Senate has already taken a different approach than the House toward social science funding, it is imperative that personality and social psychologists demonstrate their work’s success and importance at this critical time.

We are looking for all examples of research from across the social and behavioral science disciplines. It does not need to be research that has necessarily led to a tangible product or major breakthrough finding; we want to highlight this work at all levels, including:

•Interesting, cutting-edge research that shows how basic social science is advancing knowledge and pushing the frontiers of science;

•Research that has led to or has helped to inform an important breakthrough (e.g. product, therapy, intervention, etc.); and

•Notable applications or potential applications of social and behavioral science research, such as for health, national security, the economy, the private sector, etc.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

We have placed a "Why Social Science?" icon on the COSSA homepage where you can contribute to our collection of stories at any time. However, in order to respond to the specific request for comment from the Senate Commerce Committee, I am hoping you will share some of your stories by Wednesday, August 5th.

When you go to our online form you will be asked to provide the following information:

•400 word (maximum) summary of the research project or field of research and why it is noteworthy.

•If referring to a specific project, include the name of the funding agency, the amount of funding awarded, and the year(s) of support, if known.

•Name of the institution (i.e. university, research center, etc.) where the research was conducted, if applicable.

•Source of the information (e.g. websites, press releases, publications, etc.) that we can use to cite the research in our materials.

•Other documents that cannot be found on the web can be emailed to at wnaus@cossa.org.

Please forward this request to your members and other social and behavioral scientists who may have stories of their own to contribute.

We look forward to hearing from you. And thank you in advance for your participation as we seek to explain #WhySocialScience!